Court rules against Soros in trading case

ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 6, 2011Updated: October 6, 2011 8:40pm

PARIS - The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that France did not violate George Soros' rights when convicting him of insider trading, defeating a years-long effort by the billionaire financier to clear his name.

Though Soros has faced criticism for other investment decisions before and since, the French conviction over trades in 1988 left a particular stain on the Hungarian-born businessman and philanthropist's five-decade career.

He was fined $2.92 million at current rates for purchasing shares in French bank Societe Generale in 1988, days after being informed about a planned takeover bid for the bank.

That was the amount he was accused of making when he sold the shares shortly afterward. France's highest court reduced the fine in 2007 to $1.25 million at current rates.

Soros argued that France's insider trading rules at the time were unclear, and that the length of the investigation - from 1993 until his indictment in 2000 - made it hard to call reliable witnesses, violating his right to a fair trial.

The human rights court, based in Strasbourg, disagreed. In a 4-3 decision, the judges argued that "the law applicable in 1988 was sufficient for Soros to have been aware that his conduct might be unlawful."

The Soros Foundation in Paris would not comment on the decision, and Soros' lawyers could not immediately be reached.

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Soros, 81, emigrated to the United States in 1956 and set up Soros Fund Management in 1973. He now heads a philanthropic network that has funneled massive sums into education, public health, science and nongovernmental groups, mostly in the former communist bloc.

Soros has been criticized in some quarters for speculating on the collapse of Asian currencies in the late 1990s. More recently he has become a lightning rod for conservative critics in the United States, in part because some of his donations have involved causes such as climate change and legalized recreational use of marijuana.